Records

Ave.

Ave.

0-0

Top 16

0-0

9-0

Regular Season

2-7

9-0

Overall

2-7

Referees

Crew Chief

JOVCIC, MILIVOJE, Serbia

Referee

LAURINAVICIUS, JURGIS, Lithuania

Umpire

GLISIC, ALEKSANDAR, Serbia

The Take

The game has no major impact in the overall standings; CSKA has clinched first place in the group and Limoges ran out of chances to reach the Top 16. Limoges's destiny in the Eurocup is at stake, as it will go to a different Eurocup Last 32 group if it finishes fifth or sixth. CSKA relies on Nando De Colo and Aaron Jackson to lead the team at point guard. The matchup between De Colo and Leo Westermann will be one to follow closely. Limoges needs a good game from Ramel Curry, Jamar Smith and Nobel Boungou-Colo to try to steal a road win. Vitaly Fridzon and Manuchar Markoishvili must be ready to stop Limoges's top guns, while Boungou-Colo faces a tough matchup against Sonny Weems. CSKA needs its most experienced frontcourt, led by Sasha Kaun, Kyle Hines and Andrey Vorontsevich, to make the difference in the paint against blue-collar big men Adrien Moerman, JP Batista and Trent Plaisted. Expect a fun-to-watch game.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Euroleague.net

Game Notes

CSKA Moscow
Vitaly Fridzon has made at least 1 three-pointer in 30 straight Euroleague games.
Fridzon has made 19 consecutive free throws in Euroleague action.
Milos Teodosic needs 11 more three-pointers to crack the competition’s career top 10 in that category. The 2010 Euroleague MVP enters this week’s game ranked 13th overall with 266 career triples. Igor Rakocevic (277) sits in 10th place. Next for Teodosic to pass is Louis Bullock (275).
Sasha Kaun leads the Euroleague in career two-point shooting percentage. Kaun has made 349 of 493 two-point shots (70.8%). He also leads the career field goal shooting percentage list; Kaun has never attempted a three-point shot in 121 Euroleague career games.
Aaron Jackson has made 15 consecutive free throws in Euroleague games.
Nando De Colo has made 18 consecutive free throws in Euroleague action.
Sonny Weems has made at least 1 three-pointer in nine straight Euroleague games.

Limoges CSP
Limoges is second-to-last in the league in scoring with 71.8 points per game.
Jamar Smith has scored in double figures in seven straight Euroleague games.
Leo Westermann has made 9 consecutive free throws in Euroleague games.
Westermann has had some rough times in his career against CSKA Moscow. He committed a career-high 7 turnovers for Partizan in a 71-76 overtime loss in Belgrade in October 2012 and suffered a season-ending knee injury in Moscow last season.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Euroleague.net

Quotes Head Coaches

ITOUDIS, DIMITRIS

CSKA Moscow

"I’ll start from the sad part. We will play in the memory of Ruslan Gagloyev, the kid from our junior project who passed away on Monday. I express my deepest condolences to his family. It is very difficult to find the appropriate words. It should not be like this: the kids have to grow up, have their families, become parents. But unfortunately things like this happen in our lives. As for the game it means nothing regarding the results. We are already first and Limoges will continue in the Eurocup. Still we face the French league champions and current leaders, they gave us a good fight in the away game; they were leading by 10 after three quarters before we came back and won the game by 10. The game in Malaga also had no tournament meaning but we gotta respect the CSKA organization and our opponents, and this is what we did against Unicaja. You have to justify on the court that you deserve to be on certain level."

Players

ASTAPKOVICH, ANTON

CSKA Moscow

"We are all shocked with what happened to Ruslan. He was a great guy, very good friend, and his loss shattered everyone here, especially us, the call-ups from the junior project. Hopefully we will be able to play good game, to show spectacular basketball in memory of Ruslan."

CSKA Moscow routs Limoges to complete perfect regular season

CSKA Moscow hit 14 three-pointers and never trailed in crushing visiting Limoges CSP 88-56 in the Round 10 opener in the Russian capital on Thursday. CSKA finished the regular season as the competition’s lone unbeaten team; its 10-0 record takes it into Top 16 Group F, while Limoges finishes its Euroleague campaign with a 2-8 record, and will continue its season in the Eurocup Last 32. CSKA, playing without Sonny Weems and Milos Teodosic, started making its charge with a 10-2 run in the first quarter behind Vitaly Fridzon. Andrey Vorontsevich fueled a 16-4 second-quarter spurt for a 45-27 halftime lead, and the hosts never looked back after the break. Fridzon finished with 19 points, Vorontsevich collected 12 points and 7 rebounds, while Demetris Nichols and Manuchar Markoishvili scored 10 apiece. Jamar Smith scored 12 for Limoges, and Ramel Curry had 11 in the losing effort.

First quarter: Triples from Fridzon give CSKA early cushion

Fridzon and Nando De Colo opened the game with back-to-back three-pointers. Frejus Zerbo opened the visitors' account from the free throw line, before Sasha Kaun scored inside for an 8-2 advantage. But Leo Westermann hit a jumper, Nobel Boungou-Colo made a put-back, and Jamar Smith had a steal that led to an easy fastbreak dunk to tie the game at 8-8. After a Fridzon jumper, Westermann made a floater and Smith added a jumper to even the score at 12-12, but that's when CSKA started pulling away. Fridzon knocked down a corner triple in transition before Aaron Jackson made a steal and raced for a fastbreak bucket. Fridzon's third three in as many attempts made it 22-14. After J.P. Batista and Kyle Hines traded baskets inside, Markoishvili drove for a layup-plus-foul, and Jackson finished the quarter with a jumper for a 29-17 lead.

Second quarter: The hosts pull away behind Vorontsevich

Steed Tchicamboud scored a runner and a layup on a fastbreak, and James Southerland hit a baseline jumper as Limoges cut the deficit to 29-23. The visitors had success with their zone defense, and CSKA was scoreless for more than four minutes to start the quarter, before Fridzon split free throws and Hines finished a breakaway with a dunk. Jackson added a triple to the run, pushing the lead back into double figures, 35-23. Curry and Andrey Vorontsevich traded close range baskets. After a jumper from Vorontsevich, Trent Plaisted had a layup in a crowd for Limoges, but back-to-back threes from Markoishvili and Vorontsevich extended the margin to 45-27 at halftime.

Third quarter: CSKA cruises towards victory

Markoishvili nailed a baseline jumper, and after Adrien Moerman and Vorontsevich traded fastbreak dunks, Smith hit from long range and Zerbo scored from close range to make it 49-34. Vorontsevich remained hot, hitting a three-pointer, before both teams went on a two-minute scoring stoppage. Hines ended it with a layup, and after a jumper from Smith, a pair of layups from Markoishvili made it 58-36. Smith knocked down another three for Limoges, but Fridzon had a put-back to keep the margin above 20 points. Demetris Nichols sank a long jumper for the hosts, but Tchicamboud made 4 free throws for a 62-43 advantage.

Fourth quarter: A 17-0 run makes it a 35-point game

Kaun scored twice from close range, including a dunk that made it 66-43. Curry buried a triple, and Ousmane Camara had a fastbreak slam for Limoges, but the hosts did not allow another basket for almost six minutes. During that span Fridzon and Ivan Strebkov hit back-to-back shots from long range and Fridzon threw an alley-oop pass for an Anton Astapkovich dunk. Astapkovich also hit a three-pointer from the right corner, followed by long-range shots from Strebkov and Nichols for an 83-48 lead, the biggest of the night. Curry snapped the visitors’ drought with a three-pointer, but Nichols answered with another one from long range. Camara scored inside for Limoges, and after Nichols drove the baseline for a huge slam in the final seconds for CSKA, Curry rounded out the scoring with a three for Limoges.

Head Coaches

ITOUDIS, DIMITRIS

CSKA Moscow

"Congratulations to our players, we played better and deserved to win. The game was meaningless: Limoges will continue in the Eurocup, and I wish them good luck. We were first in the group already. Still we respected ourselves and the opponents, we led all 40 minutes. The game was special because it was dedicated to the memory of Ruslan [Gagloyev], our junior, who tragically passed away on Monday. We talked to the players about it, and everyone wanted to play hard, to show quality basketball. I would like to repeat my deepest condolences to Ruslan’s family, relatives, loved ones… I would like also to congratulate our team for a good regular season. We played good basketball in most of the games, we shared the ball well. Though we understand that it all starts from zero in the Top 16, all eight teams in our group have equal chances. We are far from perfect. And we want all our players back healthy to continue working hard."

DUPRAZ, JEAN-MARC

Limoges CSP

"We played against one of the best teams in Europe. Of course it was difficult from our part, we have injuries for some important players and we did not give them big minutes because we have an important game in the French League on Saturday. And unfortunately Batista twisted his ankle. Anyway, all I can say – we faced CSKA…"

Players

FRIDZON, VITALY

CSKA Moscow

"Each game we should take seriously. The most difficult game to play was the previous against Unicaja. After such victories you need to recover very quickly and be ready for the next fight. I’m very glad that we had a successful regular season. But the Top 16 is another deal; there you have more high-level teams you need to beat. There will be no time to relax."

MOERMAN, ADRIEN

Limoges CSP

"It was last game in the Euroleague this season for us. CSKA played very good, they made some crazy shots, while we missed a lot of shots. When you play against CSKA most of teams get a 25- or 40-point loss, so it’s ok. Now we will focus on the Eurocup."